New Beer Friday - June 29 Edition

By Chris Siciliano

You've probably heard by now—ten area breweries have teamed up to create one epic brew to honor Grand Rapids' recent naming as Beer City, USA. Beer City Pale Ale, a red pale ale brewed with nugget and cascade hops (all from Michigan), was devised by brewers through a collaborative process and will be on tap at most GR breweries throughout July. You can read more about it here.

At Siciliano's, we happen to think communal efforts like this are a pretty good idea, and we'd like to see them continue. In fact, this whole Beer City Pale Ale things opens up a great opportunity for discussion—if it became tradition for GR's breweries to all make the same recipe once each summer, would you like to see that recipe change from year to year, or would you rather have consistency? For that matter, what style of beer do you feel most represents our small corner of the world (West Michigan, that is)? Feel free to express your opinion in the comments section, which you'll find just below the list of this week's new suds.

New (and Returning) Beer

• Flying Dog Underdog Atlantic Lager, $1.79/12oz - "UnderDog is light and refreshing with crisp hop lage and pairs best with foods like simple salads, provolone and Monterey jack cheeses, seafood and light proteins" (source).
• Flying Dog Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout, $1.79/12oz - "A dry stout brewed with Rappahannock River oysters" (source).
• Flying Dog Wildeman Farmhouse IPA, $1.79/12oz - "Brewed for Bierproeflokaal In de Wildeman’s 25th Anniversary. This brand new brew is an unfiltered American IPA hopped with Citra and fermented with Saison yeast" (source).
• Flying Dog Woody Creek Belgian-style White, $1.79/12oz - "This unfiltered and traditionally spiced Wit beer is brewed with coriander and bitter orange peel" (source).
• Short's Spruce Pils, $1.99/12oz - "This Imperial Pilsner, fermented with local, hand-picked blue spruce tips is the quintessential symbol for Joe Short’s love of hops and craft beer. The spruce presence, rooted in historical brewing practices, is enormous and gives the beer a refreshing quality reminiscent of gin. This beer is impressively light bodied, considering the immense spruce flavors and the prodigious additions of hops" (source).
• Great Lakes Wright Pils, $1.79/12oz - "The Wright Pils, a classic pilsner style with a flowery bouquet and elegantly dry finish, is named after the Wright brothers who invented and built the world’s first successful control airplane (WARNING: Please do not operate an airplane while enjoying this brew!). The Wright Pils is light and crisp, but not too light for true craft drinkers (5.3% ABV and it’s a pilsner people). Serve as an aperitif or pair the brew with salads, salmon, tuna and marbled meats" (source).
• Breckenridge Imperial 72 Chocolate Cream Stout, $3.29/12oz - "Rich, toasted chocolate with hints of dark fruit" (source).
• Breckenridge Summerbright, $1.79/12oz - "The craftsman's touch combines white wheat, two row pale and munich malt with the pacific northwest's most intriguing hops to create a bright, clean ale ideal for picnicking, evenings on the screen porch and enjoying the whims of the summer breeze" (source).
• Left Hand Good JuJu, $1.99/12oz - "Fresh ginger kisses the lithe malty body, copulating with the hop in this pale ale ancestor" (source).

Picture of the Week

Beer tokens for the world-famous Flea Roast in Irons, MI.
Have you ever been?

Cheers!